After about 35-40 minutes, I had not moved an inch, turned the car ignition off, found a nice tree to stand behind and relieve myself and conversed with several people in "Pacquiao" paraphernalia, before getting back into my vehicle. Suddenly, out of the SUV just to my right came Joshua Clottey, who was walking towards the median. In a rush, I grabbed my economical yet efficient camera and followed. As I approached Clottey, an Asian man caught my attention, walking the same direction. It was the best fighter in the world pound for pound, Manny Pacquiao, who as it turns out was in the SUV directly in front of me the entire time.

A golf cart was summoned to rescue the two welterweight championship participants from the seemingly never-ending array of police cars, fire trucks and ambulances, and recognizing this would probably be my only moment to get an up-close photo of either, I jumped at the chance. What I captured was perhaps the coolest, most informal picture I've ever seen of two guys that will attempt to violently remove each other from consciousness in less than two months. As Pacquiao and Clottey were whisked away in the golf-cart, I noticed Bobby Pacquiao standing anonymously on the opposite side of the street and Freddie Roach a few cars back. I got snapshots of both and was carried back to my car courtesy of cloud nine.

The press conference itself would've been just like any other, if not for the owner of "America's Team,” (your Dallas Cowboys) Jerry Jones. Already hosting the presser under his newly constructed big top, Jones added a festive, circus-like atmosphere to the proceedings. The Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders were on hand, as were Cowboy legend's Rafael Wright, Preston Pearson, Drew Pearson, Russell Maryland, Darren Woodson, Charles Haley, and Lee Roy Jordan. Representing the boxing world were Paulie Ayala, Troy Dorsey, Gene Hatcher and famed announcer, Michael Buffer, emceeing. 

Jones had flag-bearers with fireworks shooting out of the tops of the flag poles, a highlight reel playing on the 60-yard long jumbo-tron, music thumping and fog machines all accentuating Buffer's introductions of each fighter. And after a few words, both were presented with personalized Dallas Cowboy jersey’s, along with promoter, Bob Arum.